If you’ve ever left your mobile phone on an airplane, in a restaurant, or somewhere other than in your possession, you know it’s frightening enough to think of losing the device itself, which costs a premium, as well as your...more

Unfortunately, account hacks and data breaches are nothing new. Every day, we hear reports of hackers compromising networks and their protected data. When it happens on a massive scale to a powerful player in the health...more

In today’s healthcare industry, information technology (“IT”) systems play an ever-expanding role in the success of a medical practice. Medical practitioners consistently juggle e-billing and electronic medical records...more

In the largest Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) settlement to date, two New York hospitals have agreed to pay $4.8 million to settle allegations that they failed to secure thousands of patients’...more

New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University entered into a settlement with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to resolve allegations that the organizations had violated the...more

On May 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”) issued a press release announcing that two health care organizations—New York and Presbyterian Hospital (“NYP”) and Columbia...more

What you need to know:
The Office for Civil Rights of the US Department of Health & Human Services is continuing its trend toward more aggressive enforcement of HIPAA violations. Small provider entities are not immune...more

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is closing out 2013 with a reminder of the importance of an effective HIPAA compliance program. On December 26, 2013, OCR announced a resolution agreement with a Massachusetts physician...more

One day after Christmas, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that a Massachusetts-based dermatology practice (Practice) agreed to a $150,000 payment and entered into a...more

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a settlement on August 14, 2013, with Affinity Health Plan (Affinity), a not-for-profit managed care plan, which included a payment of $1,215,780, for a HIPAA...more

On July 8, 2013, WellPoint, Inc., a managed care company (“WellPoint”), agreed to pay a $1.7 million fine to settle a self-reported breach of HIPAA, a key federal health privacy law, that led to the unauthorized disclosure of...more

Modifications to the rules require action by group health plan sponsors and their vendors, including revisions to policies and procedures and new privacy notices.
On January 17, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S....more

On January 18, 2013, nearly four years after the passage of the HITECH Act and its amendments to HIPAA, and nearly three years after it proposed regulatory amendments, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”)...more

The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) started 2013 with a bang by announcing that it had reached "the first settlement involving a breach of unprotected electronic protected health information (ePHI) affecting fewer than 500...more

On January 2, 2013, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced its first HIPAA breach settlement involving less than 500 patients. OCR took action against a hospice provider in...more

On January 2, 2013, HHS announced that the Hospice of North Idaho (HONI) agreed to pay $50,000 and enter into a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) as part of a settlement involving a breach of unsecured electronic protected health...more

OCR started 2013 with a bang by announcing that it had reached “the first settlement involving a breach of unprotected electronic protected health information (ePHI) affecting fewer than 500 individuals” with the Hospice of...more

ALL PROVIDERS ARE OFFICIALLY ON NOTICE.
In a move that signals just how seriously the federal government is taking its enforcement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the U.S....more